


Standing In

by Lefaym



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-17
Updated: 2009-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-08 03:02:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/72015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene, set between Day Four and Day Five of CoE: Gwen has to do it, it has to be her, because she's the only one left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Standing In

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to 51stCenturyFox on LJ for the beta

The foyer seems too bright after the dim lighting of the makeshift mortuary, and Gwen thinks it's wrong that there should be so much light left in the world, now, after everything—after Ianto. She blinks, and Jack's eyes close tightly for a long moment; his face twists and he swallows, hard.

"I need to get out of here," he says.

Gwen nods. "Me too."

They can't leave the building because every exit is guarded, but there are other doors, and no one tries to stop them as they turn down a long corridor that branches off into offices and conference rooms. Most of the rooms are locked with electronic keypads or slots for swipe-cards, so when they come across an open door, they turn into it automatically, as though they'd been looking for it without realising it.

It appears to be some sort of underutilised store-room; some old desks are stacked in a corner, but it's otherwise bare, lit only by a flickering fluorescent light. Jack closes the door behind them, and suddenly the silence is overwhelming.

"Jack?" Gwen asks. When he doesn't respond, Gwen steps closer to him, and takes his wrist in her hand.

"I promised I'd remember him," Jack says finally, his voice low and rough.

"You will," says Gwen. "I know you will."

He stares at the wall behind her, and his eyes look dead.

She isn't sure why she kisses him at first; all she knows is that she needs to do _something_, because she'll fall apart otherwise. His lips are cold, and for a second he is completely still, but moments later he grips her shoulders so tightly that it hurts. And then, all at once, he's responding fiercely, with teeth and tongue. His hands find their way to her breasts, under her shirt, and suddenly, she needs to touch him, to get at his skin hidden beneath all those layers of fabric.

Jack's eyes remain open as they grapple with each other's clothing, but Gwen knows that he's not really seeing her, that it's Ianto's face that's swimming before his eyes right now—Ianto and perhaps a thousand other lovers who died too young. It's not her neck that he's kissing, and it's not her hands fumbling for his cock, and that's okay because it means that she isn't really doing this; she isn't cheating on Rhys, she isn't breaking her wedding vows, she's just standing in for Ianto and for all the others Jack has lost, and she has to do it, it has to be her, because she's the only one left.

She feels tears well up again, and she bites down hard on Jack's shoulder to chase them away; he moans into her ear, and presses harder against her in response. One of his hands works its way between her legs, his fingers tuning into the rhythms of her body even as he looks right through her. She pushes back against him, and groans when she feels him ease one of those fingers inside her; she pulls his mouth down to hers for a third time, and tries to forget everything.

Gwen sighs as Jack pulls his hands away from her, but moments later he's touching her again, lifting her against the wall. She folds her legs around his hips, and closes her eyes when she feels him press into her, filling her. Jack moves inside her, slowly at first, and she grips him tightly as he etches his grief into her skin—with his hands, with his lips, with every inch of him that touches her. He turns his head, and presses his face against her neck; she can feel his tears soaking into her, and her whole body shakes as first one sob, and then another, rips through his frame.

His thrusts grow in their urgency, and she moves with him as best she can. Her own tears are falling again now and she can't stop them any more than she can stop the images of Ianto and Owen and Tosh running through her mind, and yet—obscenely—she can feel her orgasm building in spite of it all. She cries out when she comes, so loudly that, after the trembling subsides, she worries someone might have heard her. Jack's climax is almost silent, by comparison: a soft sigh in her ear before he shudders, and then grows still.

He holds her for a moment longer, and then pulls back slowly, waiting for her feet to touch the floor before he kneels to retrieve his clothes. He doesn't look at her as they dress, and she tries not to look at him either, but she can't help noticing the way he flinches when he finally shrugs, unassisted, back into his coat. Part of her wants to reach out to him again, but before she can act, he's striding out the door, back into the long corridor, and she can only follow him.

No one seems to notice them as they return to the foyer and find a place to sit among the loose throng of people now gathering there. For a moment, their eyes meet, and Gwen thinks that he's seeing her—really seeing her—for the first time since she kissed him. She opens her mouth to speak, to tell him that she understands, but she realises that she doesn't have any words—not truthful ones anyway—and before she can find any, Jack turns away from her and buries his face in his hands.

He doesn't look at her again until the morning.


End file.
